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Ocean Wise Seafood Month

Recently I was invited to check out the kick off to Ocean Wise Month. The event was hosted at the Fairmont Pacific Rim in the beautiful Oru Restaurant. Ocean Wise products mean an ocean-friendly seafood choice in terms of sustainability and this includes harvesting as well.

On hand was Dolf Dejong, Vancouver Aquarium’s Vice President of Conservation and Education, Chef Robert Clark formerly of C Restaurant as well as Oru’s Head Chef Darren Brown as well as Dylan McCulloch and Ryan Johnson who founded The Daily Catch on Commercial Drive. The chefs all gave individual presentations featuring some delicious Ocean Wise Seafood from The Daily Catch-they provided all the seafood for the event.

Robert Clark cooked up some BC Spot prawns for us and they were devoured by the crowd quickly! I loved how he simply poured a good amount of salt on the prawns then poured boiling water over them, 3 minutes later you have a perfectly cooked spot prawn.

photo credit:VanAqua

Steve Pocock of the Sawmill Bay oyster farm and chef Darren Brown did a great oyster demo.

photo credit:Van Aqua

And Dylan McCulloch and Ryan Johnson from the Daily Catch demoed how to properly butcher a salmon.

photo credit:Van Aqua

CTV’s Coleen Christie enjoying a Sawmill Bay Gem

Following the demo’s we were served a selection of Mission Hill Wines and delicious Oru created, Ocean Wise appetizers.

First out were some delicious Spot Prawns with Cornmeal Batter that were served with a wasabi cocktail sauce. The cornmeal batter was not to thick and had a great sweetness to it that worked perfectly with the sweetness of the spot prawns, the cocktail sauce was great but I didn’t get any wasabi flavor.

Next up was an amazing Spot Prawn Escobeach with an avocado and heart-of-palm salsa. This appy was one of my favorite of the night, the lime with the spot prawns with the creaminess of the avocado combined with the crunchy hearts-of-palm and crispy plantain chip hit all the foodie senses!

Now it was time for some amazing salmon. They sent out Salmon Tartare like I’ve never had before, the cucumber and puffed rice with the yuzu made my mouth water.

Another favorite of mine was the Candied Cold-Smoked Salmon with fried capers and lemon mascarpone cream. The way they did the salmon really did make it like candy and I also loved the nice meaty chunks used and that lemon cream is something that I’ll be making at home for sure to serve with smoked salmon.

To satisfy the oyster lovers they sent out some Sawmill Bay Oyster Po’Boys with yuzu-kosho aioli and pickled papaya slaw. I’m not a big oyster fan but I did give one a try and it wasn’t that bad, I really enjoyed the freshness of the oyster and the crunch, light breading on them, also the aioli was kick ass!

And of course what seafood feast wouldn’t be complete without some Sawmill Bay Gems on the half shell and served with a pickled-ginger mignonette. I didn’t partake in these bit couldn’t resist taking a picture, from friends reactions I’d say they were some perfect oysters.

In honor of the FoodGays who are doing a Meatless Movember challenge and avoiding all forms of meat and fish the Oru kitchen came up with this beautiful and tasty vegetarian dish. Flavor wise it popped of micro basil and the avocado mousse and goat cheese added richness. The one thing I found awkward was the chip it was based on, it was super fragile.

I urge you to buy Ocean Wise seafood whenever possible, to make it a no brainer you can get the Ocean Wise app in the iTunes App Store by clicking here. If you’re shopping for fish for dinner, Ocean Wise options (local and sustainable seafood items) include: